Thursday, May 21, 2009

UPDATE: Jon confirms that the test's last night was not engine start but the steps to engine start prior to actual ignition and start of the engines. Simply put, Boeing wanted to verify that fuel is flowing to the engines and that there are no issues prior to actually turning on the engines. Jon called it the "Braxton Hicks" engine start. Pretty Funny! Actual engine start and run at idle speeds should take place later this afternoon. I hope to have a video of it later on.

According to Flightblogger, ZA001 may have turned on it's Trent 1000 engines for the first time late last night (Thursday, May 20) and have them running at the idle setting but a comment left on Jon's post said it hadn't happened and that it was just spinning the engines and adding fuel. I'm still trying to find out what is happening.

Guy Norris also said that ZA002 is being prepared to go through factory gauntlet around this weekend and allow the aircraft ot be cleared for further gauntlet testing as well as fuel pad tests and roll out to the flight line.

Guy also reported that simulations are on going in the ITV (Integrated Test Vehicle) including simulations of the intermediate gauntlet tests that will take place shortly. Crews are also undertaking practice for ZA005 and ZA006 test flight in the ITV as well as testing the connection to the telemetry system that will download test data from the 787 test flight fleet to be processed and analyzed by the 787 flight test engineers.